‘Five more to come up across all ranges in Hosur Forest Division’

Forest officials are taking all steps to keep the wild animals from straying into human habitation.

“As many as eight barrages built across the water courses inside the reserve forests will now quench the thirst of the wild animals in Hosur Forest Division”, said A.K. Ulaganathan, District Forest Officer here on Tuesday.

Mr. Ulaganathan told The Hindu that these percolation ponds has been built across the water courses deep inside the reserve forests such as Udedurgam, Anchetti, Maharajakadai, Jawalagiri, Urigam under the jurisdiction of the Hosur Forest Division.

Another five to six barrages would be built in the forest ranges in the division.Over Rs. 50 lakhs was spent for the construction of the barrages, which enables to store 40000 cubic metre of rain water .

Instead of constructing the barrages using conventional methods such as by using sized rock pieces, the forest department adopted the method of drilling the rocks and constructed the Reinforced Cement Concrete structures to withstand any amount of flood, Mr. Ulaganathan added.

The barrages were built with the funds allotted under the Thirteenth Finance Commission Scheme, Eastern Ghat Development Scheme and the Project Elephant Scheme.

All the eight barrages were built along the regular elephant passage areas inside the reserve forests. Pieces of salt licks to supplement the nutrition of the wild animals were also placed near the barrages. The salt licks were mainly kept in many places around the barrages for the benefit of the wild elephants.

The eight barrages were built in Lakshmipuram and Gullatti villages in Udedurgam Reserve Forest, Panai RF near Anchetti, Maharajakadai Reserve Forest, Belakkarai village in Jawalagiri, Seengupallam Odai in Urigam forest range and Yanaibethalla River in Kembakkarai village.

The forest department is mulling to build another five to six barrages across all the ranges in the Hosur Forest Division, Mr. Ulaganathan added.

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